Hellbound
by SnaggleR
Summary: Everyone knows Ryoga has a horrible sense of direction, but when he ends up in Hell, the daisies and other such pretty things just hits the fan.
1. Seven Hells

Ranma ½: Hell Bound  
  
Disclaimer: I own nothing! Ranma ½ and its characters are the property of Viz and a whole bunch of other people I don't feel like looking up. Mega Man and its characters are the property of Capcom and various other people as well. If I owned these things, I'd be rich and famous, and not here writing this fan fiction.  
  
Speech ""  
  
Thoughts : :  
  
Sounds   
  
Signs [ ]  
  
Any form of electric communication { }  
  
English ""  
  
Author's Notes: Yes, this is the third time this has gone up. No you are not going insane. It's been taken down twice because I had a non-G rated summary. Ah well. I hope daisies work. On to the story... again...  
  
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Birds chirped happily and lizards scuttled across the forest floor in search of a meal as one Hibiki boy found himself lost once again. Today had been rather strange; Ryoga hadn't seen anything he recognized, which was unusual, considering he's been to so many places. He stopped and looked around, trying to find any sign of civilization as a look of confusion and anger melted onto his face.  
  
"Where the hell am I? Damn you, Ranma Saotome! You shall pay for all my sufferings!" Ryoga yelled out, attempting to remove any form of blame away from himself. He looked around once again and took off in a random direction, hoping beyond hope he'd end up in a city or town or something soon.  
  
Unfortunately for Ryoga, his wish came about in a rather unexpected way. He took another random turn and was suddenly in a city, in the middle of two gangs unloading round after round at each other.  
  
"CRAP!" Ryoga started dodging around in every way possible, barely missing each bullet. Some got so close to piercing his flesh that they struck the straps on his backpack, causing them to break and his backpack to fall off, greatly enhancing his movement. Just as he thought he was almost out of the gunfire, he leapt to the side, noticing too late that a man to the side was about to unload his machine gun. Ryoga saw an open man hole and, knowing it was the only way out, allowed himself to fall through. He could hear the roar of the weapon as it unleashed its fury. Ryoga let out a pained gasp as he fell through the small hole, into the darkness.  
  
Chapter 1  
  
Seven Hells  
  
Ryoga hit the ground with a thud, but not a loud thud at all, a bit surprising considering the force he felt himself impact with. He stood up and rubbed his head, feeling for bumps of any kind. When he found none, he peered into the darkness. And darkness he saw. There was absolutely no form of light, and he couldn't even see his hand when it was practically touching his eyelashes.  
  
Ryoga cautiously outstretched his hands and started walking slowly in as straight a line as his supremely degraded sense of direction would allow, sliding his feet along the apparently uneven ground. He stopped and listened, and he could remotely hear the sounds of something or someone moving around in the darkness other than himself, but they seemed to be too far away to be of any concern. Just as he started to continue his shuffling, he had an enormous pain suddenly shoot up his arm, unlike anything he had ever felt. It was as if his arm was being actively munched upon. Ryoga went to grab his arm and felt a large deformed head sitting where he should be feeling arm, confirming that his arm was, in fact, being used as a snack.  
  
Ryoga punched the thing in the side of its head. It seemed to let go and the pain recessed a bit. :What the hell was that? I didn't hear anything within reaching distance...: The pain lingered, but it toned down to something he could handle. Realizing he was in more dangerous situation that he thought, Ryoga calmed himself and focused his other senses on his surroundings. He strained his ears and tried to feel everything that was going on. Suddenly he was sent flying to his left by some unknown attacker and smashed into what felt like a rather large boulder. Ryoga stood and gripped the shoulder that took the impact.  
  
"Argh! I'm getting nowhere with this! Bakusai Tenketsu!" Ryoga brought his finger down through the floor beneath him and it shattered, shrapnel flying everywhere. He heard a distance grunt of pain and assumed some of the shrapnel hit his attacker, but he wasn't about to wait around to find out. He continued shattering the ground beneath him, going deeper and deeper, or so he thought. After several minutes Ryoga managed to resurface, his momentum carrying him forward. He landed on the ground and, looking around in vain, proceeded to wander aimlessly. Though he had no real perception of time, it seemed like he had been wandering for days, jumping from a sound here, being chewed upon there, among other hellish happenings. He was continuing this mundane walk when he heard a voice just barely audible, though it seemed to be yelling.  
  
"STOP!"  
  
Ryoga felt himself freeze in his tracks, but not of his own will. It seemed as though his body had been stopped by some outside force. The voice got quieter when it spoke again, causing Ryoga to have to strain his ears quite a bit to hear it.  
  
"In order to continue, you must first answer my questions."  
  
Ryoga shrugged. "Shoot."  
  
"What ritual do the people of the Hingno Giwana Triba of Peruvian Pirates perform after marriage?"  
  
"Huh? I was there once. They Castrate their donkies and eat the clippings. It was rather disgusting I'll admit. But I have to say, I didn't know it was possible to get a donkey to scream like that with something as simple as an avocado pit."  
  
The voice swore under his breath, and while Ryoga caught only bits of it, I'll elaborate for the benefit of the readers.  
  
"Grr, he even knew about the avocados... I guess I'll have to let him through." He raised his voice to something slightly more audible. "You may proceed."  
  
"That's it?" was Ryoga's reply. "Man, if life was as easy as that question, I'd be sittin on my butt all day watchin T.V.!"  
  
Ryoga walked forward and felt himself go into something that almost felt like water. Instantly he was transported to a room of horrible, blinding light.  
  
"AAAAAARRRRGGGHH!!!! MY EYES!!! THEY BURN!!!! IT'S HORRIBLE!!! OH MY GOD, IT BURNS!!!! THIS IS THE WORST PAIN EVER!!!" Ryoga shut his eyes in pain and quickly covered them with a hand. The difference between utter darkness and blinding light was something yet unexperienced to him. He then realized his screaming was being magnified to an earsplitting level, and promptly stopped that activity. He stepped forward on the now perfectly flat ground and heard it echo loudly. Soon Ryoga realized even his breath and clothes were echoing.  
  
Ryoga took blind steps in whatever direction he hoped the portal wasn't in, mumbling to himself, "What the hell is up with this? Where in Kame's name am I? One minute I'm in the crossfire of some gangs and fall down a man hole, the next I'm in complete and utter darkness with somebody incredibly strong and hungry consistently chewin on my limbs. Then when I try to escape, I end up in a room that looks like I'm constantly looking straight into the sun. If I didn't know better, I'd say I was in hAAARG!"  
  
Ryoga painfully yelled out in pain as his free arm began to be consumed by some unknown entity once again. He brought his other hand down on the creature, which yelped and let go, and, judging by what little Ryoga could tell via sound, began to retreat. Ryoga panted as the pain began to recede from his left arm. Ryoga stood up straight and once again covered his eyes, walking as lightly as he possibly could to keep the noise level to a minimum. For days he wandered, getting himself apparently nowhere. His eyes seemed to not be annoyed as much as they were before, so he could occasionally open his eyes a tiny crack to see what was going on. This was, for the most part, very little. Everything was white, as far as the eye could see, there were no changes in surroundings. Ryoga minutely opened his eyes again, but this time caught a gleam, not too far in front of him. Ryoga painfully kept his eyes open, cursing his inability to walk in a straight line. When he was within 20 feet of the object in question, an ear shattering boom of vocals echoed horribly throughout the emptiness.  
  
"HALT! In order to pass through this gate, you must first complete..."  
  
There was a moment's pause, allowing the echoes to die down and Ryoga to start removing his hands from his ears.  
  
"A GAME OF SIMON!!!"  
  
Ryoga face faulted. "What the heck are you talking about?" The bandana clad boy raised himself to his feet, squinting at the shiny thing before him.  
  
"Are you prepared?!" the voice boomed out.  
  
"For what?" exclaimed Ryoga in bewilderment. Surely this place of torture doesn't want him to play Simon?  
  
Suddenly something appeared right beneath him. It was, in fact, Simon. The Hibiki boy shook his head in disbelief and said, "You have got to be kidding me..."  
  
"Repeat the pattern!"  
  
The Simon game beeped off a pattern. Blue, yellow, blue, green, red. Ryoga sighed and repeated this pattern with some difficulty. Immediately the game went off again, this time with a longer pattern. Red, blue, green, yellow, yellow, red, green, blue, red, red. Ryoga thought for a moment and repeated the pattern on the board below him. Ryoga heard a snicker come from the gate as the Simon game began its last pattern: Green, green, blue, yellow, green, red, blue, red, red, yellow, blue, green, yellow, green, yellow, red, blue, blue, green, red, red, blue, green... on and on it went. After around 100 beeps and flashes of color, it stopped, waiting for its victim to make a sad and likely failing attempt at repeating the pattern.  
  
Ryoga closed his eyes after something like the fifteenth beep and raised his eyebrows. By the time it ended, Ryoga was starting to question his Simon abilities. There was no way he could ever complete that, even if he could see or hear properly. Ryoga racked his brain, trying desperately to figure out a way to escape. He did the first thing that came to mind.  
  
"Open the gate."  
  
The gate scoffed loudly at this. "Open the gate? HA! You haven't even attempted to complete the last sequence!"  
  
"I said open the gate," Ryoga stated a little louder this time, "and then I might now blow you to tiny pieces!" Ryoga Bakusai Tenketsu'd the ground to prove his point.  
  
"Wha?" gasped the gate. It had never seen anything like this. "What trickery is this?! I've never seen a mortal with powers like these!"  
  
"Which means you don't know what it can do to you," said the Hibiki boy as he wagged his finger menacingly. "You might as well just let me through and not chance it. That's not even half the power I have."  
  
The gate growled at Ryoga. He was right. That finger of his could do anything, and the gate would never see it coming. "Hmph. This way," growled the gate, it's voice dripping with hate. "Just, just 25 paces forward."  
  
Ryoga seemed to cheer up at this, and walked in the direction he thought was forward when he felt himself suddenly get grabbed by something with big claws and equally big teeth, and hurled through the gate. He had obviously been walking in the wrong direction again...  
  
Ryoga popped out the other end and felt his feet sink a bit into the ground. He slowly opened his eyes and, seeing that he could, well, see, opened them fully. He noticed he was perspiring greatly, and that as far as he could see, there was sand. The sky was overcast with earthy looking clouds, allowing no way to tell the exact time of day. Ryoga pulled his feet out of the sand and started walking. What else was there to do? On and on he walked, hours, days, weeks. Every so often Ryoga would see something shining in the distance, much like water, and would immediately dash to it as fast as he could, only to find that it's more sand.  
  
After weeks of wandering aimlessly (as Ryoga is want to do), he was tired of chasing after the mirages, but they gave him somewhere to aim. One day Ryoga was following such a thing, with no hopes of relief from this strangling thirst that clenched him. As he got closer, he saw that it looked particularly real, but it wasn't water. Ryoga started up to a jog, his interest sparked by the unknown thing. Ryoga closed in and gasped at what he saw, not out of horror or shock, but relief. It was a gate.  
  
Ryoga strutted through the gate, confident that this had to be the end of his anguish.  
  
He was wrong.  
  
Ryoga was dumped straight into a place of eternal flames that burned brighter than the sun, and hotter than lava. Needless to say, Ryoga was mildly uncomfortable standing in the middle of it. His eye twitched when his brain finally realized where he was. His hands clutched his face in agony as he screamed louder than should be humanly possible.  
  
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! OOHH MYY GOOOD! THIS IS... THE WORST PAIN EVER!!!!"  
  
Ryoga fell to his knees and started slamming his head into the ground, producing cracks that grew with each successive smash of his skull. After a few minutes of this activity, and Ryoga's brain was comfortably numb, he fell backwards and passed out.  
  
-----------------------------  
  
Ryoga woke up, and promptly wished he hadn't. The flames were just as high, just as hot, and he was still just as burning. He stood up, realizing it was futile to scream in pain and perform the same maneuver he had before, he ran around, looking for a safe haven while trying to suppress this feeling of constant burning pain.  
  
That was when he saw the gate. At least, he thought he saw the gate, but couldn't really tell, being that the flames that tortured him so were generating from that very spot. Ryoga approached the place and a voice boomed out at him.  
  
"HALT!"  
  
"Dammit!" cried Ryoga in frustration. "Just let me pass!"  
  
"Hahaha! Frustrated?" the voice mocked. "In order to pass through this gate, you must put out the flames that surround the gate!"  
  
"What?! No way!" Ryoga gaped at the easily 30-foot flames rising on and around the gate. "I'll never put those out! Unless... BAKUSAI TENKETSU!" Ryoga plunged his forefinger into the ground, hurling debris at the fire. One or two of the flames flickered, but burned just as strong. "It's got to work! Bakusai Tenketsu!" Ryoga pierced the ground as rapidly as his arm would allow, hurling much more rocks and dirt at the flames. One of the flames went out, but promptly sprung back to life. "I-impossible!"  
  
"HAHAHAHA! Looks like you're doomed to burn here forever, boy!" The voice laughed maniacally again. This boy was finally defeated!  
  
Ryoga fell to his knees as he took in the gates words. "Doomed to burn... forever... forever..." That decisive, irrevocable word echoed through his mind. Images flashed before him; his father, his dog, Ranma, Akari... Akane. Never again would he see her. He'd be far too busy being consumed in the eternal flames. Tears streamed down Ryoga's face as he threw his head back in a cry of despair as a giant pillar of depression chi rose into the air and quadrupled in size, coming back down the size of a city block. The flames were instantly put out, and miraculously the gate was still standing. Ryoga walked wordlessly through the gate, the previously loud and mocking voice completely silent. Where did that power come from?  
  
He and his depression were promptly doused in boiling water. "Owggglch."  
  
Ryoga looked around and saw he was in a large room, filled to the very top with water that was several hundred degrees hotter than it should be. The walls looked as though they were made of some sort of stone, and below him the gate resided behind a strange, clear rock door. Suddenly the voice Ryoga now associated with the gate boomed out, unhindered by the water.  
  
"So, it seems you managed to put out the fire. Quite impressive. However, you will never get passed this room. In order to pass through this gate, you must sing 'In da Gada of Eda' perfectly, without pause, while doing underwater acrobatics and dodging the giant killer fish which live here!" A giant fish passed just in front of Ryoga for emphasis.  
  
"Gblwat?!" Ryoga attempted to yell. "Blish igb bulglitg!"  
  
"I don't care what you think!" retorted the gate. "You will do it or you will be boiled and eaten for eternity!"  
  
"Bluk thbish!" Ryoga dove down and landed on top of the clear rock door. "BLAKUSHAI GENBGKETSHU!"  
  
"NO!" cried the gate, distress clear in it's voice. "What are you doing?!"  
  
Ryoga's finger easily poked into the door, which shattered outward. Suddenly the water started pouring rapidly through the gate. "You fool, look what you've done!" shouted the gate angrily. "You opened the door without the water repellant active!" That was the last thing Ryoga heard as he was sucked forcefully down the vortex and through the gate. Ryoga came smashing down onto the ground much harder than usual, creating a small crater. He felt boiling water come crashing down on him continuously, and felt consciousness slip.  
  
-Several hours later-  
  
Ryoga woke with a splitting headache and blurred vision. He tried to lift himself off the ground and shake his head, but found he couldn't move an inch. :Great,: he thought, :now I'm tied to the floor. Just perfect.: He tried to move his head to look at his hands and feet, but found that his head also couldn't move. "What the hell?!" he shouted. "Am I in some kind of full body harness?!"  
  
"Yes... and no..."  
  
A deep, gruff, echoing voice reached Ryoga's ears. Ryoga was getting fed up with mysterious voices, and didn't feel like dealing with this one.  
  
"Who the hell are you? And what do you mean yes and no?"  
  
"I mean you're stuck to the ground but not strapped to it."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Welcome to Gravity Hell. The gravity here is something like seventy times that of your planet's."  
  
Ryoga nearly scoffed at the thus-far disembodied voice. "Gravity Hell? Look bud, I don't know what you're on, but I'm gettin' the heck outta here." With that Ryoga pulled out all the stops and attempted a pushup, exerting every ounce of his strength, and managed to actually get a full pushup. That's when he heard a rather sickening pop.  
  
Pop!  
  
"AAAAARRRGGH!!!" Ryoga collapsed to the ground as a wave of pain rushed through his right arm.  
  
"I'm impressed, mortal, nobody has ever gotten as far as that on their first try. Too bad your shoulder got dislocated from the tremendous strain."  
  
"Dislocated, huh?" Ryoga grunted. "Well, if that's all it is..." Ryoga felt out his shoulder and the socket, and with great effort, popped it back in place.  
  
Pop!  
  
"AAAAARRRGGH!!!" Ryoga yelled with an equal amount of pain as before. "Ok..." he panted, "and now... to never... ever... do that... again..."  
  
"Hahaha!" laughed the gruff voice. "Hurts quite a bit doesn't it? Ahh, the sounds of pain is sweet to the ears."  
  
Ryoga raised an eyebrow. "You're pretty sick, you know that?"  
  
"Actually, I'm quite healthy."  
  
"Whatever. Look, I don't care what you say, I'm getting the hell out of here." That said, Ryoga set out to doing situps, however slow and painful they may be...  
  
-50 years later-  
  
"198... 199... 2...00..." Ryoga fell flat to the ground, completely exhausted. He had gained an incredible amount of strength over the last 50 years, but could only do 200 situps. Ryoga may have spent the last 50 years in training, but he's had no concept of time due to the landscape. Stretching as far as the eye can see, the ground was nothing but a flat, mundane, dark grey, and the sky was always overcast with clouds, causing there to be an equal amount of light at all times. Ryoga lie gasping for air on the ground, trying to regain his strength as fast as possible. "Hey," he said, "you never told me who the hell you are."  
  
"Who, me? Why, I am the gate, who else?"  
  
"Hmph, should have figured as much"  
  
-40 years later-  
  
The gate gasped in astonishment as Ryoga stood to his full height after a few moments of groaning.  
  
"Ha!" exclaimed Ryoga. "Now you have to let me pass!"  
  
"Eh?" replied the gate. "No no, you first must do a backflip."  
  
Ryoga would have face faulted, but that would've hurt, so he settled for twitching his eye. "You have got to be shitting me."  
  
"I'm afraid I'm quite serious."  
  
"Oi."  
  
Ryoga set to work on doing squats and other leg exercises.  
  
-10 years later-  
  
"Ha! Eat that you stupid disembodied voice!"  
  
"Most impressive, mortal. You have passed the test, and I have no choice but to let you pass."  
  
A portal appeared between the two poles and Ryoga strode through almost easily.  
  
WHOOSH!  
  
Ryoga blinked a few times and looked down.  
  
"Well this is new."  
  
Ryoga was falling, and it didn't look like he was going to land any time soon. He had an overwhelming urge to whistle, but instead looked up, and practically kicked himself.  
  
"Hi."  
  
"Why you little...!" Ryoga tried "swimming" toward the gate a mere 6 feet above him, but to no avail. Ryoga crossed his legs and adopted a thinking position. :There must be a way to get that thing to fall faster!:  
  
"I know what you're thinking, and I'm afraid it's impossible. We're falling at maximum velocity, that is to say, around 500 miles per hour. There's no way to make me fall faster."  
  
Ryoga cursed silently when he got an idea. :Of course! If I shoot a Shishi-Hokudan above the gate, it'll come back down, speeding the gate up!: "Ryoga, you're a genius!"  
  
"Eh?" said the gate dumbly.  
  
"SHISHI-HOKUDAN!" A ball of depression flew above the gate, changed direction, and started falling at the same exact speed they were. "Hmm," pondered Ryoga, "guess I didn't think that through very well."  
  
"Haha! Almost had me there, Ryoga!"  
  
"... why do you sound so whiney?"  
  
"I... beg your pardon?" the gate replied almost prissily.  
  
"All the other gates are deep and mysterious or whatever. You sound like a high pitched little school boy."  
  
"Well!" said the gate haughtily. "I never! We'll see who laughs last when you never escape from here!"  
  
"Hmph!" Ryoga looked down and saw no land beneath him. In fact, the only reason he knew which way was down was the direction of the wind. Ryoga shrugged, got into a comfortable position, and started whistling.  
  
-10 years later-  
  
"Hey, I can see ground!" And ground it was, approaching at a disgusting rate.  
  
"Yes, too bad you won't be able to get around that hole!"  
  
"Hmm, good point. Shishi-Hokudan!" Ryoga let loose a blast of chi to the side, sending him to the side about 10 feet. Unfortunately that wasn't enough. "Crap." Ryoga fell through the large hole in the ground, and somehow ended up in the sky again. "What the hell?!"  
  
"That hole teleports you back to the beginning. You'll have to wait another ten years before you even see the ground again!" exclaimed the gate almost giddily.  
  
"Hmm. Well, that sucks." Ryoga once again started whistling to pass the time. -10 years later-  
  
"Hey look, it's the ground again." And the ground it was, again, approaching at a sickening rate.  
  
"Sucker! You'll never get out of the hole!"  
  
"That's what you think! SHISHI-HOKUDAN!" Ryoga let loose a much large ball of chi, sending him a good 30 feet to the left, only five feet from the edge of the hole. "Eat that, stupid gate!"  
  
If the gate could have shrugged, it would have. "See you in ten years."  
  
SMASH!!  
  
-10 hours later-  
  
Ryoga woke up, and really, really wished he hadn't. Every bone, muscle, and organ was in massive pain. Ryoga crawled out of the 10 foot deep crater he had created, sprawled out on the floor, and started whistling.  
  
-9 years, 364 days and 14 hours later-  
  
"Hey, it's the gate." Ryoga stood up and, timing his jump, leapt out in the path of the gate, successfully going through the portal. :Yes!: he thought, :it's finally over!: Ryoga walked out into a dark abyss, looking around at the emptiness. "Great," he said, "now what."  
  
"Now you get to go back to your own world."  
  
Ryoga sighed and turned around. "Please tell me you're not another disembodied vo- woah!" Before him stood the ruler of Hell, Satan himself.  
  
"Congratulations, mortal," said the great Overlord of Demons, "you've managed to escape from hell in record time. A mere 130 years."  
  
Ryoga shook his head and sighed. "Look, I've had enough crack heads to last me a lifetime, could you just show me the door?"  
  
"So be it. You shall return to the very spot from which you came." Satan raised his hand and a red portal opened next to him. "Until next time."  
  
"There won't be a next time." Ryoga walked through the portal confidently, ready to blame Ranma for everything that had just happened to him or to maybe wake up, but it wasn't to be. Ryoga walked through the portal and noticed something was very, very wrong.  
  
"Move!"  
  
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AN: Well now, not too bad for my first fanfic, right? Please review, questions and comments are welcome, and we'll see when the next chapter pops up. This one took me a long time, but the others shouldn't take quite so much time. Special thanks to ryo-wolf for getting me through writers block and inspiring me to write this story. 


	2. Forsaken

Ranma ½: Hell Bound

Disclaimer: Ugh. Ranma ½, Capcom, etc stuff not mine. Is other people's. Ugh. Original stuff mine. No takey.

Speech ""

Thoughts : :

Sounds

Signs

Any form of electric communication

English ""

-----------------------------

Ryoga turned around and got a body full of energy beam, hurling him into the solid steel wall behind him, the metal warping around his limbs and body, his head lolling down to his chest. A young man, in his late teens by the look of it, dressed in strange blue armor that covered everything but his face, gasped in horror and turned at the creature before him that had killed the human that had just appeared out of nowhere.

"You... you monster!" he yelled at the giant head that was apparently attached to the wall.

"Do you have any idea how many laws you've just broken?!" cried the blue teen's companion. He was dressed in full armor as well, but it was red and had square shoulder pads, he had a beam sword in his hand, and looked to be in his mid twenties, a long ponytail of blonde hair falling from just beneath his helmet to his feet. "You will not be forgiven for killing a human, Sigma!"

"Hey!" Two heads and a set of eyes (on Sigma) turned toward the human stuck in the wall, his head no longer limp but staring straight at the giant head on the wall. "That hurt, you sonuvabitch!"

"W...What?" stuttered the blue one. "H-how did he...?"

Ryoga wrenched his arms free, one at a time, then used them to pull the rest of him free, hopping lightly onto the floor. He dusted off his clothes, then looked at Sigma with a glare that would have crumbled lesser beings. Sigma didn't seem to get the message, though, and instead opened his mouth and sent another giant beam easily twice the size of Ryoga himself right at the human. With quick enough eyes, one could briefly see Ryoga with his arms crossed in front of him before letting lose a beam of his own, not nearly as large, but quite equal in power, and both beams dissipated in a thin vapor, accompanied by a quiet hiss. The man in red looked at Ryoga in shock, while the younger strangely clad one was looking from Ryoga to sigma and back again.

"What... How... Didn't..." stuttered the elder of the two strange clad ones as he took a step back. Suddenly the blue teen burst out in excitement.

"WOW! That was really cool! No Reploid has ever been able to match Sigma in strength, let alone a human!" Ryoga turned and looked at the near giddy teenager, who was in fact older than he was, with a puzzled look on his face.

"A what?"  
  
"You don't know what a Reploid is?"

"Nope," replied Ryoga flatly.

It was the red armored man's turn to reply this time. "A Reploid is a special kind of robot that has the capability to think on its own and make its own decisions, whether good or bad."

"Or ugly." The red man donned a look of confusion on his face. "It's nothing," said Ryoga quickly.

"In any case, all three of us are Reploids, including," he gestured toward the giant head on the wall, "Sigma."

Ryoga thought about this for a moment before starting to formulate a plan. "So you're telling me that this guy over here is a robot?"

"Essentially, yes."

"So there're no biological parts in him?"

"No, but I don't see what that-"

"BAKUSAI TENKETSU!" Ryoga leapt forward with a speed that shocked all present, plunging his finger square in between Sigma's eyes, and the giant head exploded violently. As the smoke cleared, everyone found that they were covered in a fine purple dust.

"Ew," stated the red Reploid.

"Ewewewewewewewewewewewew! That's so nasty!" cried the not-so-red Reploid, desperately trying to get all the dust out of his eyes. "I'm covered in Sigma!" Ryoga was hardly recognizable beneath the think layers of Sigma covering him. He calmly found a nearby cloth lying on the ground and wiped his eyes with it, tossing it back on the floor when he was done.

"I don't see what your problem is," he said, approaching the blue robot. "It's just dust, after all."

"X isn't really as old as he looks," said the blonde Reploid.

"I resent that!" retorted the one identified as X. "I don't say anything about your girly hair, Zero!"

"It is NOT girly!" yelled the one now known as Zero, looking truly furious. "Just having long hair doesn't make it girly, dammit!"

A few minutes later, after wandering around the area, they found a river in which they washed themselves off. Ryoga was about to stupidly enter the stream when...

GRRRRRUUUUMMMBBBLLLEEE

Ryoga collapsed to the floor, hunched over and clutching his stomach. His two new companions rushed over to his side.

"What's wrong?" asked X in concern. "Did that blast do something to your stomach?"

"So..." gasped Ryoga, his face grimacing in pain. "Hungry..."

X gave a sigh of relief before Zero picked Ryoga up and began running to the nearest civilized area, leaping over felled, part-machine trees and scattered boxes before entering the nearby town, Arcadia. Zero continued rushing through the town, X doggedly keeping pace, both looking for a good restaurant to send Ryoga. Finally they found an old fashioned Chinese restaurant, and took Ryoga in, sitting him down at a table. The waiter approached them warily; it wasn't everyday that the two famous Maverick Hunters came into the restaurant.

"What can I get for you?" he asked, mostly toward Ryoga. Before either of the two Reploids could respond, Ryoga said exactly what he wanted.

"Everything..."

That got quite the reaction from the waiter. His eyebrow raised and he had a very skeptical look about him. "Everything? The menu is quite large, sir, I don't think you could-"

"Everything..."

"Whatever you like, sir." The waiter gave Zero and X a look that clearly said 'He had better be able to pay for this' before turning toward the kitchen to systematically make everything on the menu. Zero did not like this.

"So how exactly are you gonna pay for this, kid?" he shot at Ryoga.

"We'll pay, right?" X responded in place of the lost boy.

"What?! Are you nuts?! Do you have any idea how much that will cost?!"

"Not really. I'm sure headquarters will cover it."

"No way!" Zero shouted, highly frustrated at X's willingness to pay. "Why the hell should we pay for him?!"

"Well, he did kill Sigma in one blow." This caught Zero off guard.

"Well... but... he... and..." Zero crossed his arms and looked away. "Fine."

"Good."

-3 hours later-

Ryoga belched loudly and patted his now full stomach as he stacked another plate onto the three and a half foot tall stack of dishes on the table. Everyone had been looking at Ryoga in horror for the past three hours as he devoured all the food that came in front of him with such ferocity that he made a pack of wolves seem civilized. The waiter walked up to the table with a disconcerted frown at the stack of dishes.

"Will that be all, sir?"

Ryoga looked up in thought, and after a moment, turned toward the waiter. "I'll have another bowl of ramen, actually." Everyone in the room facefaulted, causing the precariously stacked dishes to fall over and break. The waiter righted himself and nodded politely at Ryoga.

"Very well, sir, one last order of Ramen, coming up." The waiter turned on his heel and, with a glare, went into the kitchens to make Ryoga's last order.

"Jeez, Ryoga!" said X as he got back up from facefaulting. "You must have eaten 48 full course meals!"

"Fifty-eight meals, actually," stated Zero. "And this next bowl of Ramen will make it fifty-nine."

Just then the waiter walked back into the room, looking rather peeved. "I'm sorry sir, but it seems you have already eaten the remainder of today's supplies. The chef recommends you leave and not return." Ryoga shrugged.

"Oh well. That food was great, though." Ryoga got up and started leaving the restaurant. "Give my compliments to the cook!" he called back as he walked out of the door.

"We'll send you the money later," Zero told the waiter.

"So, being that I have no idea where I am, how about you guys lead the way." X shrugged and Zero simply started walking. "Not that not knowing where I am is out of the ordinary," Ryoga muttered under his breath.

"What's that?" asked Zero.

"Eh?" said Ryoga dumbly. "Oh, nothing. Where are we going, anyway?"

"To the Maverick Hunter HQ," replied Zero. I'd like to find out why you're so damn powerful."

"You mean what I did to that stupid robot? It's just a couple of techniques I learned a while back. That blast I did is the Shi Shi Hokudan. I basically just hurl some heavy "Depression" chi at whatever I want. The more depressed I am, the more powerful the blast. I've only used the perfect version a few times. Boy was I depressed..." Ryoga's voice trailed off as he recalled the horrible feelings he had when using the Shin Shi Shi Hokudan. Soon his footsteps began growing heavy and the ground beneath him started to crack beneath his feet, causing X and Zero to start worrying for their own wellbeing.

"Ryoga, you alright?" asked X cautiously.

"Huh? Oh... yeah... And even when I perfected that technique, my rival, Ranma Saotome, found a way to exploit its source. Damn him!" Ryoga looked to the sky, shook a fist at it and yelled, "Damn you, Ranma!"

"He exploited its source?"

"Depression."

"Oh."

"So, what, he made you happy?" asked Zero.

"Not exactly. He... he said he'd kissed Akane, which caused me to shoot off my most powerful Shi Shi Hokudan ever, but just as it was about to impact he said he was lying."

"And it disappeared?" asked X, almost hopefully. From what he had seen, no human could possibly survive one of those blasts.

"No," said Ryoga, X looking disappointed. "It hit us both."

"It hit you both?!" cried X, Zero looking shocked as well. "And you're still alive?!"

"Well, yeah. It only made me pass out. I guess Ranma had more endurance than me or something, 'cause as far as I know, he didn't. That bastard, he's always out doing me." As they continued, Ryoga looked to the sky again. "He's one hell of a fighter. The only man I can call my rival with pride."

"Jeez," said Zero, impressed with this rival. "Hey, when did this happen? I don't remember any news on such a fight, and something tells me a fight like that would definitely be on the news."

"Well, it did happen a while ago," responded Ryoga. "I guess it would have been few months ago, by now. I'm crap with time. What's today's date, anyway?"

"It's the 23rd of June, 21XX."

"Let's see, 23rd of June, that would make it... wait, WHAT?!"

"What's up?" asked X, curious as to why Ryoga would shout 'what.' Ryoga grabbed Zero by the shoulders and shook him.

"What year did you say it was?!"  
  
"21XX!" Ryoga went wide eyed and fell back on his butt. "What's wrong Ryoga? The last year escape you or something?" Ryoga looked slowly up at Zero, his eyes just as wide.

"It's supposed to be 1998."

"1998? What are you talking about? That's over 150 years... ago..." Zero trailed off as realization seemed to dawn on him. "Come on," he said, pulling Ryoga up to his feet, "you've just gotten a lot more interesting." However, when Zero tried to make Ryoga move, he found the boy was far too heavy to move. A green aura started forming around Ryoga, coming off in wisps. Ryoga moved his mouth, but nothing could be heard. Zero leaned in to listen...

"Dead..." muttered the lost boy. "They're... they're all... all dead..." Zero's eyes went wide in horror as the aura started brightening and growing larger and he realized what Ryoga was about to do.

"X! RUN!!" he shouted, running himself.

"What?" cried X in puzzlement. He had never, ever seen Zero run away from something before. Whatever it was, it had to have been powerful. "Where should I run?!"

"Doesn't matter, just run straight, don't turn!" Zero shouted over his shoulder.

"What about Ryo-,"X turned to look at his new friend and his eyes also went wide in horror. The boy's aura was brighter than ever and growing to monstrous proportions. X immediately turned and high tailed it, his sensors going haywire at the amount of energy concentrated in and around Ryoga. X opened a small door in his arm and pressed a series of buttons and suddenly a suit of armor with good sized jets on the back formed around him. He leapt into the air and started flying rapidly in the direction his long time partner went, quickly overtaking him and picking him up as he went. Just then they heard a scream behind them.

"SHI SHI HOKUDAAN!!!" A huge pillar of green light with at least a 50 foot radius shot into the sky like a beacon. As the pillar reached around 150 feet in the air, the energy began gathering into a gigantic ball of energy. Encouraged by Zero's shouts and yells, X put on an extra burst of speed as his Flight Armor did the best it could to support Zero's extra weight. The as the massive orb of energy reached a one kilometer diameter, it stopped growing and began its decent to the ground. Deciding they were at a safe distance, the pair landed and X's armor disappeared.

"What's he thinking?!" shouted Zero. "There's no way he can survive that!"

"I... don't think he is thinking..." said X sadly. "He's lost everything. His friends, his family, his home, everything." As the Shin Shi Shi Hokudan reached the ground, the pair braced for a rather large explosion, but none came. It simply impacted the ground and caused a wave of dirt to fly in every direction as it created a half kilometer deep crater, eventually disappearing.

"That... was strangely anti-climactic," said the red Reploid, dirty once again.

"Yeah," agreed an equally dirt covered X. "Wonder if he's ok. I certainly hope he is."

"Me too, though I doubt he did. He'd be an incredible addition to the team. Not that that's the only reason why," Zero quickly added under the heated glare of his partner. "Wanna go check it out?"

"You bet I do!"

-A few minutes later-

X and Zero came running within shouting distance of Ryoga and decided it would be best to walk from there. As they got closer they saw that his head was hanging, his arms completely limp by his side. As they got closer still, they saw the ground directly beneath his head was a darker shade of brown than everywhere else. As they approached touching distance, they saw that there were streams of tears coming down from his eyes and dripping onto the ground below. X was the first to reach him, and he put a hand on the lost boy's shoulder.

"Hey, Ryoga." The boy did not answer. "You gave us quite a scare there, we could have..." he stopped himself, and Ryoga sobbed in response. "You... feelin' better?" Still no response from Ryoga. "You know, I'm sure all of them aren't dead."

"It's been 150 years, humans don't live that long," added Zero.

"It really can't be that bad," continued X.

"Everyone and everything he's ever known is dead and forgotten."

"Shut up, Zero, you're not helping!" shouted X in frustration.

"Whatever." Ryoga turned and started walking slowly in a random direction.

"Where are you going?" called X.

"I don't know," replied Ryoga, hoping to be rid of them soon and begin his worldwide journey of depression.

"Why don't you just follow us?" X suggested. "There's a possibility that we could find or build a time machine to allow you to go back in time." Ryoga whipped around and stared at the Blue Bombers 'descendant'.

"A... are you serious? You mean I might be able to get home?! Where is this base?!" Ryoga promptly ran in a random direction, Zero and X trying to catch him and guide him in the right direction.

-----------------------------

AN: Well, looks like I eventually overcame my overwhelming laziness and finished the chapter, though it's much shorter than the first. Ah well. Hopefully it won't take many months to overcome the next wave of laziness.


	3. Intermission

Ranma ½: Hell Bound

Disclaimer: All the stuff that isn't mine belongs to the people who own it. You know what I'm talking about. The Ranma character(s), the Mega Man X character(s), all that.

Speech " "

Thoughts :

Sounds 

Signs 

Any form of electric communication 

English " "

Chapter 3

Intermission

After a few minutes of chasing down Ryoga and convincing him that the base was in another direction, Zero and X started the long walk back to the base, during which the Reploids explained their occupation. As they came into view of the base in question, Ryoga noted the large neon sign that read "Maverick Hunter Main Headquarters." Ryoga found this to be quite counterproductive.

"Why doesn't Sigma or any other Maverick attack this place?" he asked. His red companion shrugged his response.

"I dunno. Maybe they're afraid of neon signs? Could be some crazy superstition caused by the Sigma virus. 'Beyond the glowing sign lies the door to hell' or some such nonsense."

"Evil robots bent on the Earth's destruction don't strike me as things to have such a superstition," Ryoga returned.

"Maybe Sigma just hasn't thought of it. Don't think he'll be doing much thinking any time soon after what you did to him, though."

"True."

As they got closer, Ryoga was awestruck by the immensity of the place. The door itself must have been twenty feet high and thirty feet wide. Stationed at the door and in sniper towers were several sentries, and a few patrols were walking about as well. The door sentries saluted the two high-class hunters. X returned the salute sharply. Zero, ready to get inside and get his report over with, paid them no heed.

"Excuse me, sir," said the guard on the left. Zero turned around. 

"What?"

"Permission to speak freely, sir?"

"Permission granted."

"Why didn't you just use your teleporter, sir? It's not damaged, is it?" Zero pointed a thumb at Ryoga.

"Guest."

"Couldn't you have just given him the coordinates, sir?"

"A) We don't hand out the coordinates to whomever we please. B) Take a closer look, dumb ass. He's human."

"Zero…" mumbled X at the insult. All present chose to ignore this as the guard gained a look of understanding quickly followed by a look of confusion.

"Why bring a human here, sir? Does he have technical knowledge or information that we need?"

"He's stronger than both X and I. Possibly combined," he added. This just furthered the guard's confusion.

"But sir, that's quite impossible. We've done research on humans; their fighting capacity maxes out at-"

"Look, kid." said Zero coldly, cutting off the sentry. "Don't second guess me. I saw this guy destroy Sigma with one attack. Turned the bastard into dust. With his finger." With that Zero left, the guard still puzzling the information thrown at him.

Ryoga had never seen a building so big, let alone been in one. There were labs for chemistry, labs for research, labs for development, and labs for just about anything you could think of that you'd maybe want a lab for. There were generator rooms, aircraft hangers, ground vehicle hangers, conference rooms, teleportation pads… the place just seemed to go on forever. A lesser man from the past might have passed out under the bombardment of technology, but Ryoga, who had little knowledge of the subject in the first place, took it in stride. They continued down the maze of hallways, elevators, and corridors and eventually they came upon a pair of very decorated large doors. Zero turned to Ryoga, his face stern.

"This is the office of Signas. He's the one who runs the show. You know what that means?" Ryoga shook his head.

"No, not particu-"

"It means," said Zero, once again cutting to the chase, "that if you fuck up in here, that's it, we can't help you. We're here to report what happened and ask for permission to run some tests on you to find your source of power. All I need you to do is answer questions that might be given to you. You can ask questions some other time. Clear?"

"Crystal."

"Good." Zero opened the doors and strode in, his two companions following in a triangle formation, though Ryoga was the furthest in the back. Signas briefly looked up before looking back at what looked to be a hologram of a laptop computer, yet seemed fully functional. After a few moments he pressed a few buttons and the hologram thingy disappeared. Signas stood and saluted Zero and X, the Hunters returning the gesture.

"Report."

"Mission accomplished. Sigma has been eliminated. We did not have time to check if the virus escaped before the body was destroyed because this human, Ryoga," Zero gestured at the man in question, "was, ah, injured. A scan of Sector 6a is advisable." Signas nodded. 

"Good, good. Not the best you've ever done, but still good. Why was it so important that this one live?"

"He was the one that defeated Sigma, sir." The Signas' eyebrows rose.

"HE defeated Sigma? A human?" Signas eyed the human in question. "Impossible."

"I would have said the same had I not witnessed it myself. The man says he is a practicing martial artist, but I still do not know where his power comes from. I would like to request permission to conduct tests on him to find the source." Signas nodded slowly.

"Yes… yes, that would be best. Anything else?"

Zero thought for a few moments. He had to put this delicately and in the best light, so as to keep Ryoga from some kind of penalty involving eventual death. "Yes… as a result of the battle between Sigma and Ryoga, Sector 9 was destroyed." Signas, as Zero had expected, did not look happy.

"Destroyed?" Signas donned a frown. "What do you mean?"

"That Sector has been leveled, sir. All that remains is a large crater."

Signas was not happy about this. "I'm not happy about this, Zero."

"I understand, sir."

"You did nothing to stop this? Couldn't you have prevented it? Hell, you could have killed the man if it meant saving thousands of lives!" Signas' voice was raising without him knowing it.

"No sir. There was nothing we could possibly do about it. It was all we could do to get away with our lives. As for those thousands you spoke of, that sector was, for the most part, emptied when Sigma took control of the area. A few hundred died, at most."

Signas grumbled under his breath at this. He looked Ryoga in the eyes. "What have you to say for yourself?" Ryoga was momentarily taken aback at how suddenly he was addressed.

"I-," he started. He thought of what Zero had said before they entered, and decided to say the truth in a way that didn't sound so bad. "I lost control of my power. I'm not really sure what happened. One minute I'm fighting this guy Sigma and the next the city's leveled." Ryoga started sweating. "I, I'm really sorry…"

Signas massaged his temple with his hand. "Test him, make sure he isn't dangerous, then do what you want with him. I don't want to see him again for a while. Dismissed."

"Yes, sir." The three in front of the desk left, closing the doors behind them. X sighed in relief.

"Whew! I though for sure he wasn't gonna let us help Ryoga!"

"Yeah," said Ryoga as he nodded in agreement. "After he was told that I leveled that city, I thought for sure he was gonna have me killed or something. I started freakin' out mentally."

"I wasn't sure how he'd take it, either," said Zero. "But we've gotta do what he told us to do first. We're gonna test you to satisfy Signas, maybe do something with what we find. Then we can figure out how we can get our hands on time travel technology. You'd better stay out of his way for a while, though." Ryoga got a sad look on his face. Zero put his hand on the lost boy's shoulder. "Don't sweat it, we'll figure something out." 

Ryoga blocked an oncoming strike with one hand and literally knocked the block off his opponent's body with the other. As the robotic corpse hit the ground, he turned around in a sweep kick, taking the legs out from under a robot that had been advancing on him from behind, followed up by an axe kick to its chest, shattering the comparatively weak torso. He rolled backward from this and did a handspring into another robot, landing on its head. He promptly made its head and the floor one entity with his fist. As he picked his fist back up, a laser-like weapon fired just in front of his face, signaling the fact that this fight was no longer just melee. Ryoga turned toward the offender and cracked his knuckles.

"So that's how it's gonna be, eh? Shishi Hokodan!"

Above the chaos resided a female Reploid, watching the scene below and scanning various readouts on the test subject.

"How's the test going, Sandra?" he asked. The Reploid in question did not respond.

"Sandra?" Zero repeated. "I asked you a question."

"I'm… speechless," she replied. "I've never seen anything like this."

"Like what?" The female Reploid shook her head in puzzlement, eyebrows furrowed, but still watching Ryoga.

"He's been at this for hours, and he's showing no sign of fatigue." Zero pondered this.

"That doesn't make any sense. Even I start slowing down after an hour or so. How could he be at this for so long?"

"Well… I'm not sure I'd be able to tell you accurately enough. Take a look at these readouts." As she said this she handed her superior several sheets of paper. On them included statistics on Ryoga's offensive and defensive capabilities, his lung capacity, muscle strength, recoverability, and so on, all compared to the previously highest known numbers in each category.. Zero scanned the papers several times. He opened his mouth several times to speak, but each time his puzzlement prevented such communication. Finally he managed to get out a…

"What?" Sandra walked over to his side, reviewing the papers with him.

"I know. It doesn't seem possible, but there it is. Our machines haven't lied to us yet."

"But…" stammered the red-clad robot, "these numbers… they're so high… Look at that, his offensive strength is ranked in the 400's! Last we checked the highest was in the 90's. It doesn't make any sense. The only thing it looks like I could outclass him in is speed and… leadership." He looked up at the lady Reploid. "I'm not used to being outclassed." Sandra shrugged.

"Get used to it, I guess. I did." As Sandra went back to the machine to start ending the test, Zero looked back at the papers and looked at the Potential Fighting Capacity of the subject at hand. He looked for almost a full minute.

"That… that's impossible… that simply can't be correct…" The only female in the room turned around and looked over his shoulder.

"Hmm?"

"Fighting Capacity of… 8640…" Sandra went back to the console.

"Yup." She turned on the PA system to the test room. "Hey, Ryoga." The lost boy stopped maiming the robots around him. "Could you wrap it up? The test is over."

"Sure thing!" he yelled back. Though he was having a lot of fun, he was getting kind of tired of it. As such, he Shishi Hokodaned or Bakusaitenketsued the remaineder of the robots, and he was quickly the only being left in the room.

Zero turned to Sandra. "You know… even I max out at 5300… and X at 4000 even… Do you know what this means?" Sandra raised her eyebrows. "That man… he's almost as powerful as X and I combined!"

"Mm-hmm," was her response, along with a head nod. "The tests also show that the majority of his power comes from his overwhelming reserves of ki."

"Ki?"

"Ki is to humans as electricity is to us, more or less. They need it to live. However, they can increase their ki capacity through training, and then can use it for constructive or destructive force, and can emulate the elements with it." She gestured to herself and Zero. "Again, sort of like us." Zero nodded.

"I see." He looked out the window at Ryoga, who had sprawled himself on the floor, waiting to be called out or something. "So this man is a master of ki." Sandra shook her head.

"Not by a long shot." Zero looked up, one eyebrow raised. "He may have ungodly reserves of the stuff, but he doesn't really know how to tap into it. He only knows a few ways of manifesting it: he can surround articles of clothing with ki, making them razor sharp and stiff, making them a rough sword equivalent; he can channel ki into his finger, which allows him to penetrate nearly anything, and then the ki explodes inside the object, effectively shattering it; and lastly, he can concentrate a subclass of ki caused by depression into a tangible ball, which he hurls at things. Other than that, he can't use it." Again, Zero nodded.  
"I see," was again his reply, as he looked out the window to the lost boy below. "What a waste of power." He turned back to Sandra. "I want you to research any kind of training programs we have on ki. If we have none, research through our database about training techniques, and make programs from what you find. I want him learning how to tap into his ki in two days." Sandra saluted sharply.

"Yes sir!"

Ryooogaa… Ryooooogaaaa…

Ryoga turned over. "Mm, just five more minutes…"

"RYOGA!"

"Gah!" Ryoga sat straight up, landing him in the crotch area of Sandra. "Ow." She's made of metal, you know.

"About time you woke up." Ryoga rubbed his eyes and nose.

"How long was I out?" Sandra stepped a few feet back to allow him get-up room.

"Long enough." Ryoga made use of the get-up room, and got up.

"Oh." He yawned, and did a series of stretches. "Mm, nothing like a good nap after exercising." He stood up straight and looked at Sandra with an expectant smile. "So, what next?"

"Follow me." The pair left the large room littered with robots, both dead and cleaning up the dead. They walked down the hall and into the elevator. Inside the elevator, annoying elevator music played softly.

"Why do they still play this stupid elevator music?" Ryoga asked.

"Humans are often stressful when they come to our headquarters, especially for the first time, and this music is said to help calm them down."

"I hate to break it to you, but it often has the opposite effect. It makes people edgy and want to kill stuff."

"Oh… I see…" Sandra didn't particularly care to talk about such things when in the company of a human capable of leveling an entire Sector. "I guess I'll have somebody turn it off or something."

"Would be a good idea." They came to their floor.  
Out of the elevator and into the big freakin hallways.

"Why are these halls so big?" he asked upon stepping out.

Sandra looked sort of surprised at such a silly question. "The Reploids and machines here come in a large array of shapes and sizes. The halls are built to accommodate our largest members."

"Ah." Ryoga thought for a few moments. "How did technology get so advanced? I mean, I'm no expert, but this place looks nothing like anything I've ever seen."

"It's a long story, so I will spare you the details. Around the year 2012, a scientific genius known as 'Dr. Light' came into the limelight. With the help of his apprentice, Dr. Wily, he quickly advanced technology in the world. Dr. Wily went insane and frequently tried to take over the world. All of his attempts were foiled by a creation of Dr. Light, Mega Man. Dr. Light's final creation was X. Dr. Wily was known to be working on his ultimate creation before he died, but no evidence of said creation has been found to date."

"Ah huh." Ryoga partially absorbed this, but most of it bounced right off him, simple as it was. He also wondered what the long version was. "So why is this place so big in general? If technology is so good, shouldn't it be all compact 'n' stuff?"

"While our technology is compact, there are certain limits. A plane must always be able to harbor people, for instance. And it will always take something rather large to move large objects. Et cetera."

"I see." He didn't get it. "Oh hey, earlier I heard someone mention teleporting. How the hell do you people teleport?"

"The teleporter was one of the first creations of Dr. Light. It functions by creating a warp field encoded with certain worldwide coordinates around you. The warp field then opens a worm hole, which you travel through. At the other end, another warp field is created and you are deposited on at your destination. There are limits, but most of them involve the amount of power behind it." Ryoga just blinked. The entire thing went right over his head. Sandra sighed and pressed a button next to a room they had just arrived at, and the door slid open. "I probably could have saved some time by telling you it works by magic, huh?" Without waiting for a reply, she continued. "This is your room. In the room is a cooling unit and heating unit for your food, as well as a food dispenser. Also, because some of our members are unusually heavy, there is a gravity control in the room so they don't break anything when they walk. Get some rest, you'll be working hard tomorrow." She turned to walk out.

"Wait!" Ryoga stopped her. "The gravitational controls. How do they work?" Sandra was slightly taken aback that such a light person asked about the gravity control, but quickly composed herself. She walked over to a small control panel on the wall.

"Come and look." Ryoga walked over and watched intently as she showed him how it worked and told him how to operate it, Ryoga muttering some "Ah's" and some "I see's" throughout. Sandra turned and looked at Ryoga. "Is that all?" Ryoga couldn't help but smirk.

"That's all."

"Then I have more business to attend to. If you'll excuse me." With that Sandra left the room to do whatever it is female Reploids do. 

Ryoga stood in the middle of the room, contemplating his luck. "Sleep?" he said to himself. "Sleep will not come so easy tonight. Not when I have the perfect basic training environment." Ryoga let out an almost evil laugh. He stopped and realized what happened. "Well now, that was rather uncharacteristic of me. I'd better keep that in check."

AN: Yay! Another chapter done! Another wave of laziness felled with multiple blows! Surely this NEXT chapter won't take so long! shifty eyes

Also, you may be asking, "Why doesn't he update his other story?" Well, the answer is simple. I like this one better. I also didn't really put much thought into plot for the other one.

By the way, X is NOT gay, he just has a childish/naïve state of mind, but he's very capable of going into 'battle mode,' if you will, and kicking ass. 


End file.
